Angola Prison

Plants 4.3-6.3' tall. Tender pods with a classic okra flavor. Nutty with a nice sweetness. Green, semi-curved fruits. Downy pods with 6-9 ridges. Seed mature pods average 9.3" long, 1" in diameter. All plants lodged early July after thunderstorm event. Low vigor and fair productivity when grown in 2024 at Heritage Farm; population severely impacted by disease. The variety was donated to SSE by John Coykendall (TN CO J) of Walland, Tennessee in 2008. John Coykendall is a Tennessee native and has stewarded seeds and documented oral histories from the American South for over forty years. John got this bean from Thomas Lemoine of Simmesport, Louisiana. Thomas Lemoine in turn got the variety from a friend named Mr. Spencer, who worked as a guard at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, located in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. The Penitentiary is colloquially known as "Angola Prison” or “Alcatraz of the South” or "The Farm.” As of 2023, the 18,000-acre prison still produced crops farmed by incarcerated residents. SSE Accession # 130117